Can someone please point me to documentation on the proper way to increase
the number of file descriptors under slackware. All the information I've
been able to come up with refers to changing the limits.conf file, but
there is no such file in slackware. Some sources are saying you have to do
some pretty involved kernel hacking to get an increase, others say no,
that after the 2.4 series you just need to change configuration files.

I'm using Slack 10, kernel 2.6.6

- TIA

Fitzroy Blusterbuss wrote:

> Can someone please point me to documentation on the proper way to
> increase the number of file descriptors under slackware.

See the limits(5) manual page, or /usr/doc/shadow-4.0.3/README.limits.

There doesn't appear to be a "stock" limits file on my Slackware
installations, but I'm quite sure that this is the documentation you're
looking for.

I hope that helps ...

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@alcor.concordia.ca

Systems analyst Concordia University
Instructional & Information Technology Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 04:33:17 +0000, Fitzroy Blusterbuss wrote:
> Can someone please point me to documentation on the proper way to increase
> the number of file descriptors under slackware. All the information I've

file:/usr/src/linux/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt -- look for
"file-max".
--
/dev/rob0 - preferred_email=i$((28*28+28))@softhome.net
or put "not-spam" or "/dev/rob0" in Subject header to reply

On Thu, 09 Sep 2004 23:53:53 -0500, /dev/rob0 wrote:

> On Wed, 08 Sep 2004 04:33:17 +0000, Fitzroy Blusterbuss wrote:
>> [quoted text muted]
>
> file:/usr/src/linux/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt -- look for
> "file-max".

Thanks, but I'm still completely in the dark. According to this doc, the
command: "cat /proc/sys/fs/file-max", should tell me the number of file
handlers/descriptors available. It also says the default value is 4096.
When I run the command the result I get is 25202. This suggests that the
documentation is a bit out of date. When I run ulimit -n, however, I get
1024. That is the same number that a couple of different programs report
are available to them currently.

Is 25202 the number for the whole system and 1024 the number available to
me as an individual user? The information in proc.txt tells me how to
increase the 25202 number but that doesn't seem to be the solution. I need
to increase the 1024.

Fitzroy Blusterbuss <Dewey@Manilla.com> wrote:
>
>Is 25202 the number for the whole system and 1024 the number available to
>me as an individual user? The information in proc.txt tells me how to
>increase the 25202 number but that doesn't seem to be the solution. I need
>to increase the 1024.

Almost invariably when someone "needs" to increase the number of file
descriptors, what they actually need is a better software design.

Why do you need more than 1024 file descriptors?

--
FloydL. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@barrow.com

Floyd L. Davidson wrote:

> Fitzroy Blusterbuss <Dewey@Manilla.com> wrote:
>>
>>Is 25202 the number for the whole system and 1024 the number available to
>>me as an individual user? The information in proc.txt tells me how to
>>increase the 25202 number but that doesn't seem to be the solution. I need
>>to increase the 1024.
>
> Almost invariably when someone "needs" to increase the number of file
> descriptors, what they actually need is a better software design.
>
> Why do you need more than 1024 file descriptors?
>

I suggest you try running a large mail server, you'll soon find out.

Keith Matthews <invalid@frequentous.co.uk> wrote:
>Floyd L. Davidson wrote:
>
>> Fitzroy Blusterbuss <Dewey@Manilla.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>Is 25202 the number for the whole system and 1024 the number available to
>>>me as an individual user? The information in proc.txt tells me how to
>>>increase the 25202 number but that doesn't seem to be the solution. I need
>>>to increase the 1024.
>>
>> Almost invariably when someone "needs" to increase the number of file
>> descriptors, what they actually need is a better software design.
>>
>> Why do you need more than 1024 file descriptors?
>>
>
>I suggest you try running a large mail server, you'll soon find out.

1024 per process isn't enough?

Do you see the obvious problem?

--
FloydL. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska) floyd@barrow.com

/sbin/initscript is the file I needed. You can use ulimit to set the soft
and hard fd limits there. Better to check the initscript man page rather
than the sample file initscripts.sample.